The West Coast Invitational Metal Fest

May 03, 2004

Mammoth has a new Intrawest village, and it isn’t afraid to exploit its’ features. May 1, 2004 culminated in the first event held in the new gondola base area. “The West Coast Invitational Metal Fest”, or as the Dingo put it Fiesta was about to go off. What a Fiesta it was-there were party animals hanging from the balconies of the Village Inn, while village idiots surrounded the venue.

Before the snowboarders got to test their skill there was skiing on the same set-up. Can you imagine that, skiers and snowboarders united under the same corporate umbrella? This also gave time for the sun to set and booze to settle in the gullets of those viewing-myself included. One down-flat-down kink rail, two boxes, a flat-down ledge, and a down-flat-down ledge with a creeper coming off the inside, determined who would walk away with ten-grand in a sketchy looking 70′s style briefcase.

The guys meticulously began to test the course. There wasn’t a warm up so the contest had that feeling of actually going to a street spot and getting your trick before security kicks you out. Gabe Taylor was the first to gap the kink rail, landing a couple of frontside slides before he went to back lip, then frontside 270. Lady-killer and Mammoth’s favorite mini shred, Tyler Flanagan was jumping up and over the creeper on to the top part of the ledge noseslide. Unfortunately, he came off early on the right side, and dropped off about twelve feet, effectively putting him out for the night with a twisted ankle. My roommate/problem Keenan Rice was the first to throw some cab 270s on to the flat-down. Chris Bradshaw and Mike Burton brought with them their Big Bear flavor and elevated the roar of the crowd to some of the highest decibels. Mike also tried in my eye the hardest trick of the night, butter to switch fronts through the kink rail. One of the other things that caught my eye was Rham Klampert going backside down the creeper. That means his heel cups were rubbing against the side of the ledge, normally you only see dudes doing that frontside on their toes.

As the forty-minute session wore down, the level of riding only increased. B.J. Leines’ brother Eric hurt himself earlier in the night so B.J. was shredding for the both of them. B.J. was hitting banger after banger gap to front lip way over on his nose on the kink rail, and then he did it switch. Gap to back lip on the down flat ledge, frontside 50-50 on the creeper to frontside on the down of the kinked ledge-classic B.J. style the whole time. It was a showdown at the end between him and the crowd favorite Marc Frank Montoya. MFM who was just stomping everything, 270′s here, gap to lip there, gaps to back lip nose presses, tail presses, and switch presses-him and B.J. pretty much did it all. With five minutes left, B.J. hit his final trick, gap to FS 270 to switch back lip on the kink rail, as Marco replied with a backside 270 to board slide to 270 out on the kink rail. Then in classic skate video fashion at the end when the contest was over Marco gapped cab 270 to frontside on the kink ledge getting his ender ender. Now in a rider judged contest all the riders never really get to see everything but they were all standing at the bottom waiting to cast their vote-they all saw that. MFM was decided to be the victor and, in a scene straight out of Scarface, was handed the ten grand in a briefcase by the Dingo.

While all this was happing an onlooker decided that Marco could buy himself a new board and took off with it. Big mistake, you don’t rob MFM’s shred stick. The board was repossessed and the guy who took it lucked out and didn’t get a Denver omelet made out of his face. I assume you can figure out how the rest of the night went. The bars were hopping and the babes were floppin’ Mammoth put on a marquee event, which will be a staple in the future. Big thanks to Oren and Julian at Unbound for holding it di-down.